Chapter 6 - The Sister’s Plea
That evening, as I walked out of my office building toward my car, a figure stepped out from behind a concrete pillar in the parking garage.
It was my younger sister, Sienna.
Unlike Grant and my parents, Sienna had always been the quiet bystander in the family—the one who didn't actively insult me, but who silently went along with every cruel joke to protect her own privileged status.
"Nadia," she called out, her voice trembling. She was holding a designer handbag, but her eyes were swollen and red from crying.
I stopped near my sedan, keeping my distance. "What are you doing here, Sienna?"
"I had to see you," she sobbed, stepping closer. "Dad is losing his mind. He’s breaking things in the house. Mom hasn't stopped crying for three days. Grant's fiancee just broke off their engagement because he can't pay for the wedding venue anymore."
I listened, my face unreadable. "Actions have consequences."
"Nadia, please!" Sienna begged, reaching out to grasp my arm, but I pulled back smoothly. "You have so much money! You’re driving a seventy-thousand-dollar car, you live in a luxury penthouse, and Dad is about to lose the house we grew up in! How can you be so cold? How can you destroy your own family over one stupid toast?"
"One stupid toast?" I echoed, stepping toward her until she was forced to take a step back.
"Do you think this is about Father’s Day, Sienna?" I asked, my voice dangerously soft. "This is about thirty years of being hidden in bedrooms like a dirty secret. This is about being erased from every family photo. This is about Grant treating me like a servant while I paid for his sports cars. This is about Mom watching Dad call me a 'marriage mistake' in front of thirty people and smiling like it was a joke."
Sienna looked down, tears dripping onto her leather shoes. "They... they were wrong, Nadia. I know they were wrong. But they're still your parents!"
"Parents nurture their children, Sienna," I said, opening my car door. "They don't bleed them dry in secret while mocking them in public."
"What about me?" Sienna cried out as I got behind the wheel. "My tuition at UNM! My car payment! Dad said he can't pay it anymore! My life is ruined too!"
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I looked through the open window at my sister—a girl who had never worked a day in her life, whose college tuition I had quietly funded through my dad's corporate account.
"Then I suggest you learn how to code," I said quietly, rolling up the window and driving away into the night.
